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Relocation of the Foreshocks and Aftershocks of the 2021 Ms 6.4 Yangbi Earthquake Sequence, Yunnan, China

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Abstract

An Ms 6.4 earthquake occurred in Yangbi, Yunnan, China on May 21, 2021, which has obvious foreshock activity and abundant aftershocks. Based on the seismic observation data recorded by the Yunnan Seismic Network three days before and seven days after the mainshock, a double-difference location method was used to relocate 2 133 earthquakes of the Yangbi sequence. Aftershocks are mostly distributed to the southeast of the mainshock in a unilateral rupture pattern. This sequence exhibits a SE-trending linear alignment with a length of about 25 km, and most of the focal depth is above 12 km. Integrated with the seismic distribution and focal mechanism results, we infer that the strike of the seismogenic fault is about 140°, and dipping to the SW. The fault structure revealed by the seismic sequence is complex, with the NW segment exhibiting a steep dip and relatively simple structure of strike-slip rupture and the SE segment consisting of several branching ruptures. The Yangbi Earthquake is a typical foreshock-mainshock-aftershock sequence, and the mainshock is likely triggered by the largest foreshock. This earthquake occurred in the boundary between high- and low-velocity anomalous zone, where is susceptible to generate large earthquakes.

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Acknowledgments

This work was financially supported by National Science Foundation of China (No. 41774067), the National Key R & D Program of China (No. 2018YFC1503400) and the Special Fund of the Institute of Geophysics, China Earthquake Administration (No. DQJB20X07). We thank the China Earthquake Networks Center and the Yunnan Earthquake Agency for providing seismic phase data of the Yangbi Earthquake. We also gratefully acknowledge Prof. Dun Wang, associate Prof. Wen-kai Chen for the invitation of this special issue. We thank Prof. Zhonghai Wu, Dr. Xiaolong Huang and two reviewers for their comments and suggestions which has greatly improved this manuscript. The relocated aftershock sequence catalog determined in this study is uploaded in the web version of the attached file Yangbi_reloc. txt, which is also available from the China Earthquake Science Data Center (http://www.chinarrayd-mc.cn/highlights/queryPage?mid=44&mpid=28). All the figures were plotted using Generic Mapping Tools (Wessel and Smith, 1998). The final publication is available at Springer via https://doi.org/10.1007/s12583-021-1527-7.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Geophysics, China Earthquake Administration, Beijing, 100081, China

    Ting Yang, Boren Li & Lihua Fang

  2. Key Laboratory of Earthquake Source Physics, China Earthquake Administration, Beijing, 100081, China

    Lihua Fang

  3. Institute of Disaster Prevention, Sanhe, 065201, China

    Lihua Fang

  4. Yunnan Earthquake Agency, Kunming, 650224, China

    Youjin Su, Yusheng Zhong, Jingqiong Yang, Min Qin & Yaji Xu

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  1. Ting Yang
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  3. Lihua Fang
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Correspondence to Lihua Fang.

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Yang, T., Li, B., Fang, L. et al. Relocation of the Foreshocks and Aftershocks of the 2021 Ms 6.4 Yangbi Earthquake Sequence, Yunnan, China. J. Earth Sci. 33, 892–900 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12583-021-1527-7

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